Monday 29 June 2009

University World News 0081 - 28th June 2009

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report


GLOBAL: On-line forum prior to world conference
In the run-up to next week’s Unesco World Conference on Higher Education*, a series of regional meetings refined the themes to internationalism, regionalism and globalisation, as well as equity, access and quality and, finally, learning, research and innovation. Officials regarded the consultative process as highly productive but they also wanted to broaden the debate while ensuring the discussions reached the broadest consensus on practical solutions proposed. As part of this process, Unesco organised a three-week online internet forum ahead of the conference so the issues raised could be fed into conference debates.
Full report on the University World site

GLOBAL: New research report from Unesco Forum
Karen MacGregor
The Unesco Forum on Higher Education, Research and Knowledge is publishing a Research Report, Systems of Higher Education, Research and Innovation: Changing dynamics, that explores rapid changes in global knowledge systems and describes nearly a decade of ‘research on research’ by the Forum. The report will be the subject of a University World News Special Edition, to be published next Wednesday 1 July and sent to all readers.
Full report on the University World News site

COMMONWEALTH: New agency to aid university development
David Jobbins
A new agency to aid Commonwealth states in building stronger higher education systems has come a step nearer as Commonwealth education ministers agreed to back further investigation of the plan. The 17th Commonwealth Conference of Education Ministers in Kuala Lumpur welcomed the findings of a working group which had investigated the possible establishment of a Tertiary Education Facility for the Commonwealth, and agreed that work should begin.
Full report on the University World site

CHINA: Making graduates employable
Liz Lightfoot*
Universities in China are facing similar demands to improve the employability of their graduates as those in the UK, new research among employers has revealed.
Full report on the University World site

NEW ZEALAND: Debate over Maori access to university
John Gerritsen*
A call to waive university entry requirements for New Zealand’s Maori ethnic minority has sparked accusations of racism and highlighted Maori educational under-achievement.
Full report on the University World site

GERMANY: Students strike for education
Michael Gardner
Students at secondary and higher education institutions staged campaigns throughout Germany last week calling for a better education policy. The ‘education strike’ focused on new, six-semester bachelors’ courses and plans to shorten secondary education without any substantial reform of contents in either sector.
Full report on the University World site

INDONESIA: Plans for ‘world’s largest library’
David Jardine
The University of Indonesia, the country's leading higher education institution, has announced spectacular plans to build “the largest library in Asia, possibly the world”, according to a spokesperson. Work is to begin on the library later this year.
Full report on the University World site

ISLAMIC STATES: Network to improve quality assurance
Wagdy Sawahel
The Islamic States has approved the creation of a network for quality assurance and accreditation of higher education institutions to promote creativity, innovation and research and development.
Full report on the University World site

AFRICA: Scientists call for brain drain help
Leading African scientists have urged rich nations to help fight the brain drain by investing in rebuilding Africa’s higher education sector and supporting research efforts by young scientists. In a statement to heads of state and governments attending the G8+5 summit in Italy next month, the Network of African Science Academies said a third of all African scientists now lived and worked in developed countries.
Full report on the University World News site

SOUTH AFRICA: Fast broadband for universities
Bill Corcoran
Confirmation that critical portions of the new Seacom 17,000 kilometre under-sea fibre optic cable linking Africa to Europe and India have been completed marked a momentous occasion for higher education in South Africa. As universities around the world became used to fast and affordable internet that handles large volumes of data, South Africa’s universities were left to languish in the connectivity dark ages because they lacked a telecommunications infrastructure.
Full report on the University World News site

KENYA: Higher education braces for reforms
Dave Buchere
Kenya’s higher education, science and technology sector is set for major legislative and institutional reforms aimed at promoting a knowledge-based economy to improve national prosperity and global competitiveness. Three new bills are being developed to ensure quality, equity and reliability in the delivery of post-secondary education.
Full report on the University World News site

NIGERIA: Lecturers slam Harvard training deal
Tunde Fatunde
An agreement struck between Harvard University and the Governors’ Forum in Nigeria for the world-leading US university to teach governors of states in the African country the fundamentals of good governance has been rejected by lecturers. They have described the agreement as wasteful and unproductive, called for its cancellation and suggested governance training take place at home.
Full report on the University World News site

ZIMBABWE: Academics clash over new constitution
Zimbabwe’s leading intellectuals have clashed over the crafting of a new democratic constitution, as a survey revealed that the majority of people want the unity government to treat education as the top priority among numerous pressing problems facing the African nation following a decade of international isolation and sanctions.
Full report on the University World News site

NEWSBRIEFS:

UK: London students win Commonwealth awards
Six students from UK universities have been selected for the prestigious Round Table Commonwealth Awards for Young Scholars. As part of the Round Table’s centenary celebrations, the six will each receive a £1,000 award, a three-week research grant to another Commonwealth country, and the opportunity to have their final work published in Britain’s oldest international affairs journal.
Full report on the University World site

GERMANY – Post-Soviet researcher launches new Facebook site
Nick Holdsworth
A new Facebook community of academics and researchers with interests in post-Soviet higher education, social sciences and humanities teaching has attracted more than 110 members within days of being set up. It has been launched by Andreas Umland, an historian and assistant professor at Germany’s Eichstaett Institute for Central and East European Studies, part of the Catholic Univeristy of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, which Umland describes as “a small, yet active research centre in Upper Bavaria”.
Full report on the University World site

DR CONGO: “Deplorable” teaching in private universities
Qualified lecturers rarely do the teaching in the Congo’s private universities. Instead, unqualified assistants take courses that are often obsolete, theoretical and useless for finding a job, says Le Potentiel of Kinshasa.
Full report on the University World site

AFRICA: Spotlight on internationalisation
The African Network for Internationalisation of Education, ANIE, is holding its first annual conference at Moi University in Eldoret in Kenya from 3-6 September. University leaders and officials will speak at the event to provide insights into current goals, rationales, policies and challenges facing internationalisation in African higher education.
Full report on the University World News website

AFRICA-US: 40 universities win partnership awards
Dave Buchere
Twenty US universities and 20 institutions in 15 African countries have won Africa-US Higher Education Initiative Planning Grants of US$50,000 each for capacity-building partnerships. There were nearly 300 applications for the grants that pair US and African higher education institutions and are supported by USAID and the US-based Higher Education for Development.
Full report on the University World News site

AUSTRALIA: Support for University of L’Aquila
The Group of Eight research-intensive universities is offering up to eight scholarships to early career researchers in the Italian city of L’Aquila to help them continue their research in Australia while the University of L’Aquila is rebuilt.
Full report on the University World site

SCIENCE SCENE:

SOUTH AFRICA: Early evidence of symbolic behaviour
Jan Petter Myklebust*
Recent archaeological findings of engraved ochre pieces from the Blombos Cave 300 kilometres east of Cape Town look set to stimulate further scientific debate on the origins of human behaviour. In a forthcoming article in the Journal of Human Evolution Christopher Henshilwood, Francesco d’Errico and Ian Watts describe substantial evidence that 19 pieces of ochre were engraved with abstract designs between 75,000 and 100,000 years ago.
Full report on the University World site

SPAIN: Stem cells cure disease – but only in lab
Rebecca Warden
Spanish researchers have cured a disease using pseudo-embryonic stem cells for the first time. The team, led by scientists from Barcelona’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine, has corrected a genetic defect in cells belonging to three sufferers of Fanconi’s anaemia, a serious blood disease.
Full report on the University World site

US: Malaria resistance in baboons and humans
On the face of it, baboons and human do not seem to have a lot in common. They are hairy, have long snouts and big bottoms and most of us do not. But researchers at Duke University have found a surprising similarity at a genetic level – humans and baboons have separately evolved an identical means of resisting malaria.
Full report on the University World site

UK: Taste dialects identified
From Cornwall to Scotland, Britain's regional dialects are well known in the English-speaking world. Now researchers have found that Britons differ not only in the way they speak but also in the way they taste food.
Full report on the University World site

THE UWN INTERVIEW:

AFRICA: Deeds, not words, for higher education
Primarashni Gower
Less talk, more action. That is the message from former University of Cape Town vice-chancellor, Professor Njabulo Ndebele, who shared his concerns about higher education in Africa with the Mail & Guardian at the end of his four-year term as president of the Association of African Universities.
Full report on the University World News site

FEATURE:

GHANA: Private higher education on the rise
Kajsa Hallberg Adu
Private universities have sprung up like mushrooms in Ghana. In 1999, there were just two but since then 11 new private universities and 19 private polytechnics or colleges have opened their doors. In 2006, private universities enrolled 9,500 students or about 8% of all tertiary students, while the polytechnics had 24,660 students or 20% of total enrolments.
Full report on the University World site

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY:

EUROPE: More money key for Commission research efforts
Jan Petter Myklebust
An Expert Group’s assessment of the European Commission’s Sixth Research Framework Programme 2002-2006, or FP6, has concluded that its impacts were substantial but not sufficiently far-reaching – and that two to three times more funding will be needed if the EU is to achieve its ambition of establishing a European Research Area.
Full report on the University World News site

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories:

US: What recession? Valet service arrives
When the concept of starting a valet parking service came up at a recent Florida Atlantic University Board of Trustees meeting, it seemed less out of place than one would think, writes Ben Eisen for Inside Higher Ed. With the number of students growing, and the number of convenient parking spaces on campus unchanged, the idea to charge students and faculty for such a convenience did not seem unreasonable. Florida Atlantic is just talking about valet service. Other colleges have implemented it.
Full report on the University World News site

CHINA: Universities open doors to baseball players
Several universities in China have agreed to add baseball to their lists of sports that offer a passport to a tertiary education – a move that baseball insiders greeted as instantly increasing the country’s potential to produce stars in future, the China Baseball Association announced on PR Newswire.
Full report on the University World News site

FACEBOOK:

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WORLD ROUND-UP:

IRAN: Security tightened amid university exams
With post-election unrest continuing in Iran, thousands of police officers have been tasked with maintaining public security as students prepare to take university entrance exams, reports Press TV. Tehran's deputy chief of police, Hossein Sajedi-Nia, said more than 10,000 security officials would be kept on duty to tighten security and keep a sharp lookout for civil unrest until the end of university exams.
More on the University World News site

US: Keeping connected with Iran
Iran’s universities have historically been sites of protest. Now is no exception – except the students are not alone – writes Elizabeth Redden for Inside Higher Ed. “Iranian students have always been politically active. It’s nothing new. What’s new is it has engulfed so many sectors of society,” said Ervand Abrahamian, a professor of history at Baruch College who has written extensively on modern Iran.
More on the University World News site

SOUTH KOREA: 13% of Chinese students stay illegally
Thirteen percent of the estimated 60,444 Chinese students in Korea are in the country illegally, the Justice Ministry said last week. The Dong-a Ilbo reports that as of 30 April, Chinese students accounted for 77.7% of the estimated 77,743 foreign students in Korea from 130 countries. Mongolia was a distant second with 3,152 students, Vietnam third with 2,096, Japan fourth with 1,827, and the United States fifth with 1,101.
More on the University World News site

CHINA: Stricter enforcement of plagiarism rules needed
A Chinese academic who pioneered software to detect and prevent plagiarism in university papers is calling for stricter enforcement of regulations to curb plagiarism. “We need a law to counter plagiarism in academic papers,” Shen Yang, an associate professor in the Information Management School of Wuhan University, told Xinhua.
More on the University World News site

INDIA: Radical reform of higher education to start soon
In an ambitious blueprint for reform of the education sector, the high-powered Yashpal Committee has recommended scrapping a cluster of powerful bodies – the University Grants Commission, All India Council for Technical Education, National Council for Teacher Education and Distance Education Council – reports The Times of India. Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said government would try to implement the Yashpal recommendations within 100 days, according to Indian Express.
More on the University World News site

INDIA: Universities must perform or perish
A sub-committee of the Planning Commission headed by Nasscom chief Som Mittal has drawn up accreditation guidelines for all 378 universities in the country, reports The Times of India. Also, new colleges will not be permitted to begin admissions if they do not obtain accreditation – and institutions that do not become accredited within a stipulated time will be closed.
More on the University World News site

MALAYSIA: Polytechnics might soon award degrees
Standards of polytechnics in Malaysia might be raised to enable them to offer degree courses to students, reports The Star. Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said he had requested a study be conducted on the issue as soon as possible.
More on the University World News site

ASIA: Universities collaborate on teacher education
Presidents and representatives of 40 universities in Asia, including many universities of education, have pledged to collaborate to improve teacher education and promote educational research and development, reports The Jakarta Post.
More on the University World News site

US: Ebola infection blocked in cell-culture experiments
Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered two biochemical pathways that the Ebola virus relies on to infect cells, reports ScienceDaily. Using substances that block the activation of those pathways, they have prevented Ebola infection in cell culture experiments – potentially providing a critical early step in developing the first successful therapy for the deadly virus.
More on the University World News site

KENYA: Lack of degrees threaten ministerial jobs
At least five Kenyan government ministers will be affected if a new proposal requiring people in the Cabinet to be degree holders is effected, reports Lucas Barasa for The Zimbabwean.
More on the University World News site

SOUTH AFRICA: ‘Knowledge in the Blood’
For a long time, Jonathan Jansen lived between two worlds. As the first black dean of education at South Africa’s conservative and marginally integrated University of Pretoria, the scholar writes that he gravitated between two different cultures, embracing and disengaging from his black identity and white colleagues. Charged with the task of helping the university to integrate, Jansen worked with both students and faculty to overcome their fears and racist tendencies. Now a professor at the University of Witwatersrand, Jansen spoke to Inside Higher Ed about his new book, Knowledge in the Blood: Confronting race and the apartheid past, published by Stanford University Press.
More on the University World News site

SOUTH AFRICA: New media initiative a national first
The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) became the first in South Africa to use podcasting as an educational tool when it launched a new media initiative this month, reports Caitlin Smythe for The Skills Portal.
More on the University World News site

WALES: Higher education funding rise defended
Welsh Education Minister Jane Hutt has said £31m extra per year was being put into higher education in Wales after a report urged more investment, reports the BBC. The review, led by Bangor University Vice-chancellor Professor Merfyn Jones, warned that the economic success of Wales could be at risk without extra money.
More on the University World News site

IRELAND: Free college places for unemployed
Thousands of unemployed workers hit by the economic downturn will be able to retrain on free college places from September, it was announced last week, reports The Independent. Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe said the 2,500 spaces on part-time undergraduate and postgraduate courses would be part of the government’s efforts to up-skill the labour force.
More on the University World News site

Sunday 21 June 2009

University World News 0081 - 21st June 2009

INDIA: Scandal leads to university review
Raghavendra Verma
India’s newly re-elected Congress Party-led government has been rocked by a higher education scandal that has forced the new Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal to take action. After a meeting with University Grants Commission officials, Sibal ordered the so-called ‘deemed university status’ awarded to 125 tertiary education institutions be reviewed, with all pending requests to assume this status be shelved.
Full report on the University World site

CANADA: Phone-calling politician under attack
Philip Fine
A Canadian granting agency will review its support for an academic conference on the Middle East following a call from a federal cabinet minister. The review decision was made after a letter-writing campaign to the politician’s office by B’Nai Brith Canada, which claimed the conference’s programme was anti-Israel. But when Minister of State for Science and Technology Gary Goodyear later phoned the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council asking it to consider a second peer review of the conference’s application to verify it met the funding criterion, there were calls for his resignation.
Full report on the University World site

ITALY-LIBYA: New strategic partnership
Wagdy Sawahel
In a bid to promote knowledge-based economic development, Italy and Libya have launched a strategic partnership in higher education, science and technology. The launch occurred during the historic first visit of Libyan leader Muammar Kadhafi to Rome earlier this month.
Full report on the University World News site

GERMANY: Record funding for higher education
Michael Gardner
Despite its most severe economic crisis since World War II, Germany’s federal and state governments have sealed a funding agreement for higher education and research worth a total of €18 billion. The money is to be spent over a 10-year period and represents the largest support measure the country has seen.
Full report on the University World site

ISRAEL: Wage agreement ends Open University strike
Helena Flusfeder
Students at Israel’s Open University went back to the classroom – and to their distance learning via the internet – last week following a seven-week strike, after academic staff reached an agreement with management over employment conditions and a collective wage settlement.
Full report on the University World site

EUROPE: New ways of financing higher education
Alan Osborn
University funding in many European countries has changed markedly in recent years, largely moving from a line item budget system where public funds are allocated on the basis of certain functions – such as human resources, facilities and specific projects – to schemes where governments provide lump sums a university can use as it chooses. But where next?
Full report on the University World site

NEW ZEALAND: Tertiary study more affordable
John Gerritsen*
Years of restrictions on fee rises mean New Zealand’s tertiary education system is now more affordable for students than it was at the start of the decade, a new study shows.
Full report on the University World site

FINLAND: Radical changes for universities
Ian R Dobson*
The Finnish parliament has voted for the most radical set of reforms of the nation’s university system in several decades. Despite a couple of glitches on the way to the parliament, the new act was passed by 168 votes to 16, with the only party-wide opposition coming from Vasemmistoliitto, the Left Alliance.
Full report on the University World site

NEWSBRIEFS:

GLOBAL: New CEO for WUN
Australian medical scientist Professor John Hearn has been nominated chief executive of the Worldwide Universities Network, a partnership of 16 research-led universities from Europe, North America, South East Asia and Australia.
Full report on the University World News site

UK: Universities advised on pandemic
Britain’s Higher Education Funding Council has issued guidelines for further and higher education institutions following the World Health Organisation’s decision to increase its influenza pandemic alert level to ‘6’. This means there is now evidence of increased and sustained human to human transmission of the swine flu virus across a number of global regions.
Full report on the University World News site

BENIN: Higher education in crisis
Wagdy Sawahel
Higher education in the West African nation of Benin is in crisis because of increasing demands from prospective students while internal and external resources are dwindling. An evaluation of the system, aimed at strengthening higher education, will begin this month and should be completed next February.
Full report on the University World site

EUROPE: International educators meet in Madrid
The European Association for International Education has published the programme for its 21st annual conference in Madrid from 16-23 September. Connecting Continents is expected to attract more than 3,000 international educators at the administrative and faculty levels. The conference will have more than 100 sessions, 35 workshops and several key plenary sessions.
Full report on the University World site

NEW ZEALAND: Uni-research institute merger abandoned
Cost, risk and the economic recession have combined to sink a proposed merger between a university and a government-owned research institute. New Zealand’s smallest university – land-based industry specialist Lincoln University – announced earlier this year it would seek to merge with AgResearch, a Crown research institute specialising in agricultural research.
Full report on the University World site

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

IRAN: Post-election violence spreads to universities
Jonathan Travis*
Violence has spread from Tehran to the outer provinces and several universities have reported clashes between students and Iranian security forces, United Press International reports. Chancellor of Shiraz University, Mohammad Hadi Sadeghi, resigned from his post last Wednesday after riot police stormed a library and fired tear gas inside. More than 100 students were reportedly arrested.
More Academic Freedom reports on the University World site

BUSINESS:

GLOBAL: Invest now in R&D to profit from the crisis
Alan Osborn
The world economic crisis has already begun to affect innovation and research in the better-off countries, but this may not be all bad news says the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the association of the world’s 30 leading economies.
Full report on the University World site

SWITZERLAND: International business skills course
Alan Osborn
A Swiss university is offering a course designed to train professionals for careers in international organisations and agencies.
Full report on the University World site

FRANCE: Trophies for leading management courses
Jane Marshall
International business school rankings producer SMBG-Eduniversal has announced that Dauphine University, Paris, received the greatest number of accolades at its 2009 Trophées de la Pédagogie awarded this month for France’s best masters-level management-related studies .
Full report on the University World site

NEW ZEALAND: Pregnant women disease treatment
Leah Germain
New research may lead to the early detection of preeclampsia, a condition that threatens eight million pregnant women’s livers and kidneys worldwide each year, says a study released by the University of Auckland.
Full report on the University World site

FEATURE:

DENMARK: Great gains for Danes
Luke Slattery*
Radiating from Denmark’s handsome capital, Copenhagen, is a relaxed and civic-minded optimism that dispels all thoughts of “the brooding Dane”. This tiny nation of 5.1 million souls stands tall in the ranks of the knowledge economies but nobody seems to know how or why.
Full report on the University World site

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY:

The two articles below were first published in International Higher Education (Number 56, Summer 2009), the journal of the Boston College Center for International Higher Education in the US.

INDIA: Time for a serious higher education rethink
Santosh Mehrotra*
Barely 11% of the relevant age group were enrolled in higher education in India in 2007. The Indian state has been so under-invested in education as a whole since independence in 1947, that higher education was bound to arrive at this juncture. During the 11th-plan period (2007-2012) the objective is to increase the enrolment rate to 15%. The government of India has raised allocations for higher and technical education to five times the allocation made during the preceding five-year plan period. However, major constraints remain toward achieving this otherwise laudable objective.
Full article on the University World News site

BRAZIL: Student quotas – the policy debate
Simon Schwartzman*
The Brazilian Congress is discussing a bill requiring federal higher education institutions to introduce a 50% quota for poor, non-white applicants who are public school graduates. The bill addresses the issue that these students lack the opportunity to attend the best, mostly private, secondary schools and are disadvantaged when they sit for the entrance examinations of the top public universities in the country.
Full article on the University World News site

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories:

GREECE: Virtual University sails on
Makki Marseilles
No fewer than 17 universities from 14 different countries, including two from Greece, participated in the Euro-Mediterranean University’s convention Unity and Diversity of the European Identities to mark the first anniversary of the virtual university’s foundation.
Full report on the University World News site

WORLD ROUND-UP:

SOUTH KOREA: Influx of students poses flu risk
With three additional cases of the H1N1 virus confirmed last week, health officials went on heightened alert for a possible influx of overseas Koreans and foreign students in the coming weeks of the summer vacation, reports the Korea Herald. The latest infection cases involving two Korean students and one Philippine woman from the US have brought the total number of people infected with the disease in the country to 56.
More on the University World News site

EMIRATES: Flu checks on students before vacation
The Higher Supervisory Committee on Combating H1N1, or swine flu, is working on a mechanism to examine Emirati students studying abroad before they return home for summer holidays, writes Abdullah Rasheed for Gulf News.
More on the University World News site

INDIA: 46 students flee Australia attacks
At least 46 Indian students have fled Australia following a rise in the number of violent attacks against the community in the past month and many others are being asked by their worried parents to return home, the editor of a Melbourne-based magazine said last week, reports The Economic Times. In Surat, DNA India reports that nearly a third of students who had been planning to study in Australia are now looking to other countries, especially the UK and US.
More on the University World News site

UK: Education and business hand in hand
Last week, the government created the new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which will have responsibility for higher and further education policy. Nobody would disagree that our universities and colleges are as much about the cultural bedrock of our society as the competitiveness of the economy. So why bring them into a department whose core remit is Britain's economic development? asks Peter Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, in The Guardian.
More on the University World News site

US: Funding squeeze pushes university presses to brink
Chancellor Michael Martin doesn't question the prestige the Louisiana State University Press brings to his school, with Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction and poetry, tomes on Southern history and culture and other noted works to its credit, writes Kevin McGill for Associated Press. What it doesn't bring in is revenue, and like cash-strapped colleges across the US, the university is getting tired of propping up its press.
More on the University World News site

US: “Unequivocal” warming will change lives
Climate change is already reshaping the United States, according to a new federal report that predicts global warming could have serious consequences for how Americans live and work, write Lauren Morello and Climatewire for The New York Times.
More on the University World News site

VIETNAM: US$400 million to build world-class universities
‘New model’, ‘high-quality’ and ‘quick access to international standard’ were phrases used by Tran Thi Ha, Director of the University Education Department in the Ministry of Education and Training, when talking about plans to build four world-class universities, reports VietNamNet Bridge.
More on the University World News site

SOUTH AFRICA: Government promises innovation boost
South Africa’s Department of Science and Technology will focus on supporting the creation of jobs through innovation, research and development, writes Audra Mahlong for ITWeb. Director-general Phil Mjwara said support would continue for programmes that promoted innovation in small and medium enterprises, research and development in the private and public sectors, and use of space science and technology for land use and disaster monitoring.
More on the University World News site

SOUTH KOREA: Universities declare admissions reform
The presidents of four-year universities in Korea have issued a joint declaration on reforming the university admissions system by doing away with the grades-oriented admissions culture, reports JoongAng Daily. This is the first time the heads of 200 universities have presented a unified front on reform of admissions policies.
More on the University World News site

TURKEY: 1.3 million students sit for entrance exam
The Student Selection Exam (ÖSS), required for acceptance into universities throughout Turkey, was held last weekend for the final time in its current format. A total of 1,349,423 students left home early in the morning last Sunday to take the ÖSS, which began at 09h30 throughout the country as well as in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, reports Today’s Zaman.
More on the University World News site

US: Colleges with at-risk students face penalties
The increasing push by federal and state governments alike to tie financial support for colleges to their success in retaining and graduating students concerns officials at institutions with large numbers of students who are from low-income backgrounds or are the first in their families to go to college, writes Doug Lederman for Inside Higher Ed.
More on the University World News site

US: Failing grade on alcohol
Amid the hubbub surrounding colleges' attempts to curb excessive drinking on college campuses, one surprising finding has come to light: drinking-related deaths have actually increased, write Ben Eisen and Stephanie Lee for Inside Higher Ed. The number of alcohol-related unintentional injury deaths among college-age students between 18 and 24 rose from 1,440 in 1998 to 1,825 in 2005, according to a study released last week.
More on the University World News site

Monday 15 June 2009

University World News 0080 - 15th June 2009

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

UK: Universities disappear in super-ministryDavid Jobbins
Lord Mandelson, Britain’s second most powerful minister, used last week’s Science Museum's 100th birthday celebrations to argue that the new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills would put science at the centre of the government's economic recovery plans for a prosperous, sustainable future. Attacked in the House of Lords, Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, was equally assertive about the high priority that would be attached to the universities.
Full report on the University World News site

CHINA: Publishing in English creates western industry
John Richard Schrock
China’s adoption of English as a universal academic language, combined with western-style publishing requirements for university promotion, has led to a proliferation of foreign companies offering proofreading services to the nation’s academics.
Full report on the University World News site

EGYPT: First female vice-chancellor appointed
Ashraf Khaled
More than a century after the first public university opened its doors to both s exes in this conservative Muslim country, Egypt last week named its first woman university president. Hend Hanafi was appointed by President Hosni Mubarak as head of Alexandria University in Egypt’s second biggest city.
Full report on the University World News site

EUROPE: Joint PhDs becoming popular
A major two-year project undertaken by the European University Association, with the support of the European Commission and involving 33 universities in 20 European countries, has found that collaborative doctoral programmes are growing in importance and offering real value to universities and industry.
Full report on the University World News site

AUSTRALIA: Plan to protect foreign students
Geoff Maslen
As violence against international students continues and Australia faces increasingly strident criticism from India, the vice-chancellors’ organisation – Universities Australia – has released a “10-point action plan” for student safety. Among the recommendations, the plan calls for strong law enforcement and “necessary complementary actions”.
Full report on the University World News site

INDIA: Outcry over “racist” attacks
Shreesh Chaudhary
The spate of attacks on Indian students in Australia has attracted unprecedented media and public attention. The issue has been discussed in parliament, on television and has hit the headlines of most English language newspapers since the first attack last month.
Full report on the University World News site

EGYPT: American University suspends classes over swine flu
Ashraf Khaled
The detection of swine flu in a dormitory has prompted the American University in Cairo – a prestigious private institution that has been operating in Egypt for 95 years – to suspend classes, university officials and the Egyptian health authorities said. Last week swine flu was detected among seven American exchange students residing in a university dormitory in Cairo’s upmarket Zamalek quarter.
Full report on the University World News site

SOUTH AFRICA: Monitoring university transformation
Karen MacGregor and Munyaradzi Makoni
South Africa’s new Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, has announced the creation of a monitoring group to deal with university transformation, following a damning report into lingering racism on campuses. At a meeting with vice-chancellors last week, Nzimande called on universities to expand opportunities for more affordable, quality higher education for poor students – especially for black students to obtain scarce and critical skills.
Full report on the University World News site

FINLAND: Student support high but inadequate
Ian Dobson
Despite the apparently strong government financial aid they receive, most university students in Finland have to work to support themselves. Statistics from the Eurostudent Project indicate that, on average, state support provides students with about 40% of their personal income needs, 18% comes from parents or spouses and 42% by way of paid employment – but 12% of the state support must be repaid.
Full report on the University World News site

PAKISTAN: Reform model for developing countries
Wagdy Sawahel
Pakistan has been recognised by the World Bank for its innovative reform to higher education. Besides having some of its universities among the top 600 in the world, Pakistan was given "Rising Star" status in five scientific disciplines last year for the first time by Science Watch, a Thomson Reuters publication.
Full report on the University World News site

BOTSWANA: Limits on enrolments cancelled
A special correspondent
A decision by the Botswana government in April to restrict new enrolments in university-level institutions has been cancelled. The original move sparked a public outcry and it was quickly realised that limiting the intake of sponsored students to fewer than 5,000, and to students who had scored an aggregate of 40 points or better in the 2008 O-level examinations, would not work.
Full report on the University World News site

NIGERIA: University reforms ex-militants
Tunde Fatunde
The Federal University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria’s oil and gas city has opened its doors to former rebels to receive training. Young militants took up arms in the Niger Delta region to fight against poverty, under-development and environmental degradation. Many of these young men and women have signalled their intention to abandon guerrilla life in mosquito-infested creeks and take advantage of the university’s vocational ‘crash’ courses.
Full report on the University World News site

NEWSBRIEFS

DR CONGO: Skills bank plans to combat brain drain
In a move to help combat the effects of the country’s brain drain, the Democratic Republic of Congo government is setting up a skills bank of its expatriates to benefit from their training and expertise, reports Le Potentiel of Kinshasa.
Full report on the University World News site

MALAWI: Peace through civic education
The University of Malawi may have averted political violence during last month’s presidential elections, where President Bingu Wa Mutharika was elected for another five-year term, by offering civic education to its students. Ugly scenes on campus that marred previous polls did not materialise despite the presence of political party branches where students with different affiliations have clashed in the past.
Full report on the University World News site

SCIENCE SCENE

EUROPE: Genes that calm the savage beast
Thirty-seven years of rat-breeding in Russia have provided the basis for new research identifying genetic regions responsible for animal tameness. A team of scientists from Germany, Russia and Sweden studied genetic information from rats that had been bred for their tameness or aggressiveness and have published their findings in the June edition of the journal Genetics.
Full report on the University World News site

UK-US: Keeping space missions clean
Imagine the excitement. A space mission to Mars discovers microbial life! Scientists are beside themselves with anticipation. They pore over the first information sent back by their Mars rover. And then their excitement is replaced by disappointment, not to mention a little embarrassment. There's life all right but it's from Earth – someone didn't disinfect that Mars rover properly. Oops.
Full report on the University World News site

SWEDEN: European neutron facility secured
Jan Petter Myklebust*
Sweden has beaten Hungary and Spain with a bid to host a EUR1.4 billion neutron research facility, the European Spallation Source or ESS. The Swedish Ministry of Education recently announced the ESS would be built in Lund, with the Swedish government covering 30% of the installation costs.
Full report on the University World News site

FEATURE

US: I'll never teach online again
Elayne Clift*
I trained for it, I tried it, and I'll never do it again. While online teaching may be the wave of the future (although I desperately hope not), it is not for me. Perhaps I'm the old dog that resists new tricks. Maybe I am a technophobe. It might be that I'm plain old-fashioned. This much I can say with certainty: I have years of experience successfully teaching in collegiate classrooms and online teaching doesn't compare.
Full report on the University World News site

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

RWANDA: Improving S&T key to speeding up development
Romain Murenzi*
Rwanda urgently needs to develop both economically and socially but its natural resource base is very low – virtually non-existent. Improving Rwanda’s science, technology and innovation capability is essential for the country’s development and will reduce its poverty.
Full report on the University World News site
Article first published by SciDev.net

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

GREECE: Falling from a great height for science
Makki Marseilles
University professors are no longer white-haired, bespectacled, elderly gentlemen; they are young, fit, well versed in the use of computers and state of the art laboratory equipment, have left the campus and carry out experiments in the most unlikely places under extraordinary conditions including inside an airplane cascading towards the earth from a height of 10 kilometres with its engines switched off.
Full report on the University World News site

CZECH REPUBLIC: A ‘shoe-in’ for a film festival
Nick Holdsworth
The Tomas Bata University in Zlin in the Czech Republic is something of a ‘shoe-in’ when it comes to film festivals. Home to Europe’s oldest children and youth film festival, Zlin – a small town deep in the Moravian countryside in the county’s south-eastern forested hills and rolling farmland – is more famous for its footwear than films.
Full report on the University World News site

WORLD ROUND-UP

SOUTH KOREA: Intellectuals in war of ideologies
A democratic revolt or populist agitation? During the past week, more than 3,300 professors from Seoul to Jeju have issued statements criticising South Korea’s Lee Myung-bak administration for oppressing democracy and civil liberties, reports the Korea Herald.
More on the University World News site

PAKISTAN: HE Commission publishes university ranking
A report by Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission has ranked universities on the basis of publications in peer-reviewed journals indexed by the Thomson-Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge during 2007 and 2008, Ali Usman writes for the Daily Times. Quaid-e-Azam University topped the list with 544 publications in 2008 and 409 publications in 2007.
More on the University World News site

INDIA: Ministry may allow private universities
The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) may allow private players to set up universities instead of going the ‘deemed to be university’ route, writes Urmi A Goswami for The Economic Times. The ministry will also push for firm regulations which would demand transparency and accountability of players in the education sector.
More on the University World News site

INDIA: Focus on undoing higher education wrongs
There is vast scope to undo wrongs done to higher education in India and to innovate in terms of improving studies and inclusion, said Narendra Jadhav, a newly-appointed member of the Planning Commission and outgoing Vice-chancellor of the University of Pune (UoP), writes Vishwas Kothari for The Times of India.
More on the University World News site

CHINA: Mass accords with Saudi Arabian universities
The presidents of nine Saudi Arabian universities last week signed 24 agreements with Chinese universities in the presence of Higher Education Minister Khaled Al-Anqari and his Chinese counterpart, Arab News reports from Beijing.
More on the University World News site

THAILAND: Concern over falling university take-up
The Education Ministry is planning to launch a study into why one in four students who win university places fail to take up their seats, writes Sirikul Bunnag for the Bangkok Post. A report from the Ministry’s Office of Higher Education Commission, OHEC, says more than 20,000 youngsters in each of the past two years have turned their backs on university spots.
More on the University World News site

KAZAKHSTAN: Economic crisis knocks HE plans
Kazakhstan’s higher education system is taking a battering from the global financial crisis, jeopardising ambitious plans to turn the country into an Asian tiger economy, writes Joanna Lillis for EurasiaNet. Thousands of young people face expulsion from universities as they find themselves unable to pay tuition and fees.
More on the University World News site

US: Californian universities in budget hell
California’s universities are reeling from unprecedented budget cuts that have been triggered by the state's financial crisis, writes Rex Dalton for Nature. The 10-campus University of California expects to see a cut of US$800 million from the $3.2 billion in state funds it was due to receive over the next year. And with 23 campuses that provide mainly undergraduate degrees, the California state university system anticipates that at least $580 million will be sliced from its $2.7-billion state award.
More on the University World News site

US: Not-so-secret agents
American colleges seem increasingly willing to at least try out the use of agents in recruiting international students, and a series of events at the recent NAFSA: Association of International Educators conference only reinforced that reality, writes Elizabeth Redden for Inside Higher Ed. However, a serious debate still simmers about whether the use of agents best serves the interests of students, and a schism exists between those in international education who promote the practice and those in admissions who continue to reject the notion of incentive- or commission-based overseas recruiting on ethical grounds.
More on the University World News site

US: Despite odds, cities race to bet on biotech
Where a textile mill once drove the economy of the blue-collar town of Kannapolis northeast of Charlotte, an imposing neoclassical complex is rising, filled with fine art, Italian marble and multimillion-dollar laboratory equipment. Three buildings, one topped by a giant dome, form the beginnings of what has been nicknamed the Biopolis, a research campus dedicated to biotechnology, writes Shaila Dewan for The New York Times.
More on the University World News site

US: Summer flu, fall headaches?
As college students begin leaving for summer vacation, the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, is cropping up on a surprising number of campuses across America, write Stephanie Lee and Ben Eisen for Inside Higher Ed. Some national experts say the trend could be an ominous sign for students and health centres in the Autumn, when flu season traditionally intensifies.
More on the University World News site

PHILIPPINES: Classes postponed to thwart swine flu
The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in the Philippines announced last week that the opening of classes in colleges would be postponed until 15 June, writes Rainier Allan Ronda for the Philippine Star. Commission chair Emmanuel Angeles said the postponement was a precaution against the possible spread of the A(H1NI) influenza virus. The one-week period would allow the self-quarantine of foreign and Filipino students coming from abroad.
More on the University World News site

SOUTH AFRICA: Cap higher education pay, say unions
Capping the pay of top managers at public higher education institutions was a step in the right direction, but all salaries at these institutions should be subject to government guidelines, two higher education staff unions said last week, reports Sue Blaine for Business Day.
More on the University World News site

UK: Why boys can’t keep up with girls
Is the future female? asks Lee Elliot Major in The Guardian. Ten years ago I wrote an article for the New Statesman magazine predicting as much, on the back of figures showing women for the first time making up the majority of university admissions – a transformation from the exclusive preserve of white, middle- and upper-class males that made up academe as little as 50 years ago.
More on the University World News site

GULF: Wider higher education cooperation with Europe
With social and human development through education having emerged as national priorities among Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states, a new report suggests that better and stronger institutional cooperation with the European Union could provide tangible benefits, reports AMEInfo.
More on the University World News site

SINGAPORE: New chair for international university body
Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, President of the National University of Singapore, has been unanimously endorsed as the new chair of the International Alliance of Research Universities, Ascribe Newswire reports. He takes over the leadership from Australian National University Vice-chancellor, Professor Ian Chubb.
More on the University World News site

Monday 8 June 2009

University World News 0079 - 7th May 2009

University World News is the official media partner of the 2009 Unesco World Conference

A decade after the first World Conference on Higher Education in 1998, this year's event on 5-8 July will provide a global platform for forward-looking debate on one of the most rapidly changing fields within the global learning landscape. The conference will identify concrete actions aimed at ensuring higher education meets national development objectives and individual aspirations. It will provide an occasion for key stakeholders to make a new commitment to the development of higher education and agree on action-oriented recommendations to enable higher education and research to respond better to changing labour market needs and to the growing and multiple demands of society.

UWN will be reporting on depth in the issues and the debates.Click here to find out more.


NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

SAHARA-SPAIN: University of the Desert
Paul Rigg
The universities of Berkeley, Managua, Leeds and Pretoria have joined forces with more than a dozen others in Algeria, Cuba and Spain to support a unique ‘University of the Desert’ in the Sahara. For the first time, the planned University of Tifariti has a multi-institution commitment to the Saharawi cause.
Read the full story in our Features section.

US-ISLAMIC WORLD: Obama's cooperation plan
Wagdy Sawahel
US President Barack Obama has announced a plan for promoting cooperation between the US and Islamic States in higher education, science, technology and innovation in a bid to promote the development of a knowledge-based society in the Muslim world.
Full report on the University World News site

ASIA: Japan dominates regional rankings
Karen MacGregor
The first rankings of Asian higher education institutions by the British company QS has sparked intense interest across the region. Universities in Hong Kong emerged at the top – the tiny territory has four institutions in the top 20 – while Japan dominates in numbers and quality with nine universities in the first 20 and 33 in the top 100.
Full report on the University World News site

BRUSSELS: Europe to launch new global rankings
Karen MacGregor
A global university ranking exercise, rivalling those of China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Britain’s QS-Times Higher Education, is set to be launched in 2011. This follows a European Commission decision last week to award a four-country consortium of institutions a contract to design and test “a new multi-dimensional” rankings system.
Full report on the University World News site

EUROPE: Major policy shift in ERC advanced grants
Jan Petter Myklebust*
Over the last three years, researchers and their institutions in Europe, along with many others elsewhere, have been preparing for the announcement of the latest European Research Council research grants programme. As recently as January, ERC officials were proposing an expansion of the scheme but at a Tubitak conference in Istanbul in March this picture changed abruptly, to the alarm of those planning to apply for grants.
Full report on the University World News site

AUSTRALIA: Racial attacks hit billion-dollar industry
Geoff Maslen
Violence against foreign students has created a crisis for Australia’s federal and state governments with India and now China warning they will not allow their nationals to be subject to racist attacks. As selling education to foreigners is Australia’s third largest export industry, said to be worth $15.5 billion a year (US$12.5 billion) to the national economy, the threat of sanctions from the two largest source countries is alarming.
Full report on the University World News site

ZIMBABWE: Looted money returned to universities
The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono, has reimbursed foreign currency looted from university accounts in a development that has also seen him fall out with the country’s Finance Minister Tendai Biti. Gono accused Biti of being behind threats to have his children expelled from foreign universities.
Full report on the University World News site

NEWSBRIEFS:

GLOBAL: Gender perceptions hold back students
In most countries, girls and boys now show similar results in the OECD’s PISA tests of 15-year-olds. But systematic assessment of gender differences reveals that students are still being held back by their own gender-related perceptions. A new study released by the OECD notes that the choices that boys and girls make about higher education and careers can reflect social stereotypes more than student ability.
Full report on the University World News site

SWEDEN: New EU research strategy
Jan Petter Myklebust*
Sweden is assuming the European Commission presidency from the Czech Republic in July and the first major initiative to put a new stamp on European research policy is a huge research conference in Lund on 7-8 July. Several European research ministers will be present along with 400 guests. The title of the conference is “New Worlds – New Solutions: Research and innovation as a basis for developing Europe in a global context”. The Swedes have found an interesting punchline: Future Shocks and World Outlooks 2025.
Full report on the University World News site


ACADEMIC FREEDOM

MEXICO: Academic censored and threatened
Jonathan Travis*
Florencio Posadas Segura, a professor at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa in Mexico, has been censored after speaking on the university radio station, Radio UAS. On 13 and 15 May, he commented on the topic of new university regulations, including the issue of succession of the rector, saying that they had not passed democratic and academic tests. Segura was then severely reprimanded by the university authorities.
More Academic Freedom reports on the University World News site

BUSINESS

GLOBAL: Unlocking secrets to trade success
Leah Germain
Too much paperwork and other transporting delays can seriously affect a country’s profit margin when exporting goods, reports a new Australian university study written with World Bank officials. By improving trade techniques and reducing the time it takes to transport goods from the factory to the ship, a country’s trade performance increases, with developing nations especially prospering.
Full report on the University World News site

FRANCE: Backing for bio-software
Jane Marshall
The French government has received the go-ahead to grant nearly EUR50 million to the nation’s BioIntelligence research and development programme. The green light came from the European Commission, which has a potential veto over such large grants to ensure they comply with fair competition rules for the European Union.
Full report on the University World News site

US: Roadmap for robotics industry
Emma Jackson
A consortium of universities, institutes and think tanks has warned the US it needs to invest in progressive robotics technology to remain competitive with other global powers.
Full report on the University World News site

FEATURES

SAHARA-SPAIN: University of the Desert
Paul Rigg
The universities of Berkeley, Managua, Leeds and Pretoria have joined forces with more than a dozen others in Algeria, Cuba and Spain to support a unique ‘University of the Desert’ in the Sahara. For the first time, the planned University of Tifariti has a multi-institution commitment to the Saharawi cause. As a result of war, the Saharawi people have been split between a territory occupied by Morocco and a refugee camp in the Algerian desert. A small strip of land in between is under their control and is the proposed site of the university.
Full report on the University World News site

US: Problems teaching science online
John Richard Schrock*
The internet provides convenience in dissemination of science information but there is substantial research documenting problems with replacing face-to-face teaching and traditional paper publishing. In this article, I describe 10 such problems.
Full report on the University World News site

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

SOUTH AFRICA: What’s an idea worth?
Sue Blaine
A bitter argument is being waged among some of South Africa’s published thinkers. It all began, really, in March, when University of the Witwatersrand Vice-Chancellor Professor Loyiso Nongxa decried the “impoverishment of the national intellectual project”. He ascribed it, in part, to low remuneration for intellectual endeavour that had some academics seeking to augment their salaries and resorting to private consultancy, “producing lower-quality work for greater financial rewards, while others become public intellectuals peddling personal opinions and biases as expert knowledge”.
Full article on the University World News site
First published by The Weekender

US: Decoding learning gains
Throughout the world, interest in gauging learning outcomes at all levels of education has grown considerably over the past decade. In higher education, measuring ‘learning outcomes’ is viewed by many stakeholders as a relatively new method to judge the ‘value added’ of colleges and universities. The potential to accurately measure learning gains is also viewed as a diagnostic tool for institutional self-improvement, write Gregg Thomson and John Aubrey Douglass in a new paper for the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California Berkeley.
More on the University World News site

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

GLOBAL: Racism is often a two-way street
Akash Arora
It’s quite refreshing to wake up in London with Australia making headlines on BBC News. But if the country is coming under attack for being racist, for not one but three separate incidents involving assaults on Indian students in a matter of a week, it's quite something else. Going through the reports, it amused me to think of how many Indian students are bashed on Delhi Metro, the Indian capital’s new rail network, and how they never make news.
Full report on the University World News site

US: Academic benefits of choral singing
Children who sing in choruses have greater academic success and more advanced social skills than children who don’t sing, a national study by Chorus America has found. Large majorities of parents and educators surveyed for the study attributed a significant part of a child’s academic success to singing in a choir.
Full report on the University World News site

US: Harvard creates gay professorship
Harvard University is creating an endowed professorship in l esbian, gay, bis exual and transs exual studies, the first of its kind in the United States and reflecting a rise in s ex-related academia nationwide, writes Erin Kutz for Reuters. The Ivy League school will invite visiting scholars to teach on s exuality and issues related to s exual minorities for one semester each, a Harvard official said last week.
More on the University World News site

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WORLD ROUND-UP

INDIA: New national higher education council
Heralding greater cohesion in higher education, Indian President Pratibha Patil said a National Council for Higher Education would be set up to reform regulatory institutions, reports The Economic Times. Along with the formulation of a ‘brain gain’ policy, work on the council will be initiated in the next 100 days.
More on the University World News site

UK: Mandelson takes charge of universities
The British prime minister on Friday scrapped the two-year-old Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, Dius, and awarded all of its responsibilities to a new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills designed to help the UK out of recession, reports Polly Curtis for The Guardian.
More on the University World News site

UK: Universities over-claiming millions
Universities are over-claiming millions of pounds of public funding for students who they fail to recruit or who drop out, reports Julie Henry for The Telegraph. Almost £100 million has been overpaid over the last eight years, with some institutions claiming in excess of £1 million more than they are entitled to because of miscalculations in student numbers.
More on the University World News site

UK: Female students beating men at almost everything
Women outperform men in almost every single aspect of higher education, according to research published last Sunday, writes Richard Garner in The Independent. The number of women at university began to exceed the number of men for the first time 16 years ago. A new study by the Higher Education Policy Institute, an independent university think-tank, found that women are more likely to get a good degree pass and less likely to drop out.
More on the University World News site

MALAYSIA: Probe into university blunder begins
Malaysia’s Higher Education Ministry has sent a team of officers to investigate a blunder which led to 4,574 Universiti Sains Malaysia entrance applicants being mistakenly accepted, The Star/Asia News Network reports. While the investigation is taking place, the affected students hoped that they would be given priority to enrol into the university of their choice.
More on the University World News site

INDONESIA: Special scheme's growth impedes access
Students from poor families will likely find it increasingly difficult to enter state-owned universities in Indonesia in the coming years, as the number of seats offered through special entrance schemes – which require higher admission fees – are steadily increasing, writes Yuli Tri Suwarni for The Jakarta Post.
More on the University World News site

CHINA: More students opting for overseas study
While her classmates are toiling away in preparation for the cut-throat college entrance exam, Chen Ruqian is sitting idly at home. Bored. The 18-year-old from the famous Shanghai Foreign Language School was offered a full scholarship from Amherst College in the US, thanks to her outstanding academic performance and community work, writes Tan Yingzi for China Daily. “All the best students in our school go for American universities,” she said.
More on the University World News site

CHINA: Tiananmen anniversary amid tight security
China imposed a security clampdown to stop any event marking the 20th anniversary of the crushing of the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests, as it faced renewed calls to account for the bloodshed, Marianne Barriaux reports for AFP. Tens of thousands of people were expected to rally in cities around the world to remember the military’s action on 4 June 1989 against demonstrators – many of them students – in the heart of the Chinese capital.
More on the University World News site

US: Under 55% of college students graduate on time
A new study says fewer than 55% of four-year college students graduate with a degree within six years, writes Donna Gordon Blankinship for Associated Press. The report by the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute found college completion rates vary widely. But in general, graduation rates are better at more competitive schools.
More on the University World News site

US: Split over open access
In the debate over ‘open access' to scholarly research, the Association of American University Presses has weighed in on the ‘anti’ side of things, backing legislation that would end a federal requirement that work supported by the National Institutes of Health be available online and free within 12 months of publication, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed.
More on the University World News site

US: CUNY’S programme for immigrant elites
City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College is reviving a New York tradition of giving opportunities to ‘diamonds in the rough’ – immigrants and their sons and daughters – writes Geraldine Baum for the Los Angeles Times. Some 1,200 students are receiving a first-rate education, for free, at the nation’s largest public university.
More on the University World News site

US: Texas scales back access programme
The Texas Legislature voted last weekend to scale back a programme under which Texans who graduated in the top 10% of their high schools were given automatic admission to the state university of their choice, writes James C McKinley for The New York Times. The action put limits on a 10-year-old experiment to increase diversity in the colleges.
More on the University World News site

UGANDA: Tele-education for East Africa students
Makerere University has devoted two lecture rooms to tele-education, allowing students from different geographical locations to learn from better-resourced education institutions through satellite technology, writes Frederick Womakuyu for New Vision. Students from more than a dozen universities in East Africa are being linked to learn from lectures broadcast from India.
More on the University World News site

WALES: Five universities break away
In the old days, all Welsh higher education came under one umbrella. Now that unity has been shattered, writes Lucy Hodges for The Independent. On St David’s Day, 1 March, the biggest five of the Welsh universities announced they were forming an alliance that would be strong in research and put Wales on the map.
More on the University World News site